Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 64-year-old Canadian businessman of Pakistani descent who was imprisoned for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, recently petitioned a court in New Delhi for permission to speak with his family while he is in captivity.
Rana is presently being kept under strict security at Tihar Jail. He was extradited to India from the United States after the US Supreme Court rejected his last appeal against extradition on April 4, 2025. Through his attorney, he submitted his plea for family interaction, which Special Judge Chander Jit Singh is anticipated to review.
The primary conspirator of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, David Coleman Headley (also known as Daood Gilani), is close to Rana. Rana is charged with working with members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI), as well as other conspirators from Pakistan, to plan the three-day terror siege of Mumbai.
The attacks started on November 26, 2008, when ten Pakistani terrorists entered Mumbai over the Arabian Sea and targeted a Jewish center, two upscale hotels, and a train station. 166 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in the nearly 60-hour-long concerted attack.
Rana was remanded to judicial custody after his extradition, and he was then moved to Tihar Jail, where he is kept in a high-security cell under constant observation. The Delhi Legal Services Authority set him up with legal counsel, and Piyush Sachdeva was chosen to represent him in court.
In the past, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), backed by Special Public Prosecutor Narender Mann and senior counsel Dayan Krishnan, has resisted pleas for family contact, claiming that doing so could jeopardize the transmission of important information.
In the investigation into the 26/11 attacks, Rana’s extradition and continued questioning are viewed as important steps. Indian authorities hope that his testimony will shed more light on the conspiracy and possibly provide more information about the attack’s masterminds. Because of the seriousness of the crimes committed and the case’s global scope, it continues to garner a lot of attention.
